zz 223 A speech before the Spartan assembly

Pursuit of happiness throws out of true
a form as lithe as pairing body/mind.
My “happiness” is for the syssitia few.
The other is as unbalanced as unkind.

Happiness? It causes ranks to waver.
Happiness makes hand crawl towards the theft.
Greed and desire, are they not the saviors
of happiness? They speak to the depraved.

And happiness based on romantic love
brings down the populace worse than a murrain.
Insidious passions make the purest grief
alive, dry up the womb and leave it barren.
Unless love is lovemaking and they wed
Lakonia, and let her grasses bed.

poem by Edward Wright Haile
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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